We tested 5 petrol station chicken pies to find South Africa’s best padkos snack

Whether you’re at the office, on the road doing deliveries or coming home late at night, we all agree that there is only one snack solution: a garage pie.

by: Katy Rose | 14 Mar 2019

On 14 March the world celebrates World Pi Day - a day to celebrate both maths literacy and pastry filled delights. The date has been selected because it represents the first 3 digits of pi or ?? - 3, 14 or March 14th.

We thought we’d taste 5 different chicken and mushroom pies from South Africa’s leading petrol station forecourts. We bought them from Engen, Total, Caltex, Shell and BP and then rated them in a blind tasting.

Here are the results!

Engen Corner Bakery chicken and mushroom Price: R22

This pie, while having a lovely golden appearance, lost out some points on its filling with tasters commenting, “Pastry was good, not so the filling” and... “Pastry was good, not so filling”. This pie’s pastry was a little doughy and chewy.

This pie was strange because it was rectangular as well as being pale and unappetizing in appearance. We chose the plain chicken because that was the only chicken flavour on offer. The addition of carrots was a strange choice with comments from the panel such as “Hardly any chicken. Very pale pastry.” and “Carrots! Why?”

You may have noticed that two petrol stations (Total and Shell) both sell pies from the same manufacturer. Even though they scored differently in the different areas, the overall scores came out the same!

Our winner in this test is Shell’s chicken and mushroom pie, only because it is a R1.40 cheaper than the runner up (Total)

- Each sample was rated on Appearance, Texture of pastry and Texture of filling.

- This article is not sponsored in any way, and Food24 was not paid to come to any particular result. Our taste tests are always unbiased and intended for your entertainment, however you may have come to this article through various paid-for advertising.